Individual, structural, and institutional factors are involved to boost the informal entrepreneurial activities. A literature review of developing nations

The study reviews the literature of determinants of informal entrepreneurship in developed and developing nations and finds the major causes that fabricate the informal culture, which is individuallevel, structural level and institutional level. The objective of this paper is to explore the important determinants of informal entrepreneurship in developing nations. Few factors have commonalities with other factors that have been discussed in the literature. Few determinants have explored as additional determinants that have not been discussed by Colin’s Model that was based on developed nations. This study has explored these factors as some additional factors in Colin’s model. Additional factors are entrepreneurial spawning, availability of resources, family tradition, and support of family members. No single factor is yet able to detect the difficulties of this sector, the nature of the informal entrepreneurship is always clarified by a “cocktail” of factors

Evaluating the motives of child labourers in the informal economy

Conventionally, the marginalised population was considered to engage in child labour due to poverty, education or lack of other options, but indeed, a few children work voluntarily. However, a growing number of scholars, in recent years, have drawn their attention to the valuable question, “why children are engaged in child labour in the informal economy”. Even though a few studies have explored the motives of informal workers, to our knowledge not a single paper has explored the motives of child labourers working in the informal economy. The purpose of this study is to fill this gap by evaluating the motives of child labourers, through three competing theorisations of the informal economy

Important Determinants of Informal Entrepreneurs

Informal entrepreneurs operate in a shadowy sector where they produce legal goods but do not register their businesses under the requirement of government authorities. Hidden practices of entrepreneurs are a persistent problem for both developed and developing nations. Academic scholars and policymakers considered that public institutes are responsible for this occurrence where taxes rate too high, tough registration procedure with high cost, and political instability are considered significant. In this study, factor model is struggled to investigate the important determinants of informal entrepreneurs. The authors collected survey-based data from 30 markets of Lahore city, provincial capital city of Pakistan. Snowball sampling technique used for picking the respondents because no comprehensive list of informal entrepreneurs is existing in these markets. Sample size was 1200 and 40 structured interviews were conducted in each market with the help of four trained interviewers. Shockingly, this study reveals that not only institutional factors are the most serious but also individual and structural factors are also play a positive role to stay in informal entrepreneurship, at least in developing nations. The outcomes of this study will help policymakers who work to minimize and mitigate the informal activities. Findings verified that individual and structural factors also have a significant role in the development of informal entrepreneurship culture. Government departments and other regulatory agencies can be considered important factors for taking policy decision to minimize the size of such enterprises. This paper is pioneer to factorize the individual, structural, and institutional based determinants to explore the most important reasons for informal entrepreneurs

Illegitimate tasks and job satisfaction among employees of micro informal enterprises

This study addresses the illegitimate task-related stressor that establishes a threat to the employees’ self-image. The objective of this study is to provide a clear picture on how illegitimate tasks impact on employees’ mind who work in micro informal enterprises. No single study examined this relationship among employees of informal enterprises. An active employee of micro informal enterprises (MIE’s) within Lahore city is the unit of analysis of this study. The questionnaire of the study was sent to 500 employees of informal enterprises. Participants were 425 full-time employees in informal enterprises at various position levels, representing an 85 percent response rate. SPSS 21 and AMOS 16 statistical packages were used to analyze the collected data. Normality of variables was checked with the help of Skewness and Kurtosis scores. To test the hypotheses of this study, structural equation modeling (SEM) was implemented. The analysis comprises confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM). The findings of this study show that illegitimate tasks also boost the stress level of employees who work in informal entrepreneurship. Consequently, owners and managers of MIE should organize and design such training programs that increase the level of understanding about assigned tasks

Anticoagulant potential and total phenolic content of six species of the genus Ficus from Azad Kashmir, Pakistan

Purpose: To investigate the total phenolic and flavonoid contents of Ficus benghalensis, Ficus elasticaa, Ficus palmata, Ficus religiosa, Ficus semicordata and Ficus auriculata, and to determine their anticoagulant potential. Methods: Crude methanol extracts were prepared from the plant leaves, and fractionated using liquidliquid partition with n-hexane, chloroform and ethyl acetate. The total flavonoid and total phenolic contents of the extracts and their fractions were determined. The anticoagulant potential of the six Ficus species were evaluated in healthy human plasma, using activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT) and prothrombin time (PT) methods. Results: Phytochemical analysis showed the presence of considerable amounts of flavonoids ranging from 5.3 ± 0.7 to 11.8 ± 0.3 mg rutin equivalents (RE)/g, and phenolic compounds ranging from 8.0 ± 0.7 to 86.5 ± 1.5 mg gallic acid equivalents (GAE)/g in each fraction of the six species. Results from in vitro anticoagulant potential assays showed significant anticoagulant properties, with prothrombin time (PT) ranging from 17.7 ± 0.7 to 26.7 ± 2.2 s, and activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT) varying from 47.7 ± 3.3 to 72.3 ± 5.4 s. Conclusion: The results indicate that F. semicordata and F. Religiosa have higher anticoagulant potential than the other Ficus species studied

The Mediator Role of Anger in The Relationship Illegitimate Tasks and SME Employee´s Turnover: Empirical Evidences from Developing Nation

Illegitimate tasks cause a threat to employees' job security; as a result, increasing the stress level. The purpose of this research is to explore how illegitimate tasks determine SME employees' turnover intentions and investigate the mediating role of anger in sustaining this relationship. A structured interview questionnaire was used for data collection from volunteering employees of manufacturing SMEs of Gujranwala city. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) and Partial Least Square (PLS) software were used to analyze the data. Data analyzed in two steps: first, to check the goodness of measures through reliability and validity of constructs. In the second step, to assess the hypothesis of this study with the help of the structural model. The results indicate that illegitimate tasks positively influence both employees' turnover intentions and their anger level. The findings show all relationships were statistically significant. Lastly, this study's finding shows that anger has successfully mediated the relationship between illegitimate tasks and SME employees' turnover intention

Surfactant exfoliated 2D hexagonal Boron Nitride (2D-hBN) explored as a potential electrochemical sensor for dopamine: surfactants significantly influence sensor capabilities.

Surfactant exfoliated 2D hexagonal Boron Nitride (2D-hBN) nanosheets are explored as a potential electrochemical sensing platform and evaluated towards the electroanalytical sensing of dopamine (DA) in the presence of the common interferents, ascorbic acid (AA) and uric acid (UA). Surfactant exfoliated 2D-hBN nanosheets (2-4 layers) fabricated using sodium cholate in aqueous media are electrically wired via a drop-casting modification process onto disposable screen-printed graphite electrodes (SPEs). We critically evaluate the performance of these 2D-hBN modified SPEs and demonstrate the effect of 'mass coverage' towards the detection of DA, AA and UA. Previous studies utilising surfactant-free (pristine) 2D-hBN modified SPEs have shown a beneficial effect towards the detection of DA, AA and UA when compared to the underlying/unmodified graphite-based electrode. We show that the fabrication route utilised to prepare 2D-hBN is a vital experimental consideration, such that the beneficial effect previously reported is considerably reduced when surfactant exfoliated 2D-hBN is utilised. We demonstrate for the first time, through implementation of control experiments in the form of surfactant modified graphite electrodes, that sodium cholate is a major contributing factor to the aforementioned detrimental behaviour. The significance here is not in the material per se, but the fundamental knowledge of the surfactant and surface coverage changing the electrochemical properties of the material under investigation. Given the wide variety of ionic and non-ionic surfactants that are utilised in the manufacture of novel 2D materials, the control experiments reported herein need to be performed in order to de-convolute the electrochemical response and effectively evaluate the 'underlying surface/surfactant/2D materials' electrocatalytic contribution

Suitable research methods for informal entrepreneurship

The objective of this paper is to justify the rationales of methodology that is used to investigate the practices of the informal entrepreneurship. First of all, review the previous methods, both direct and indirect, that have been employed to examine the practices of informal entrepreneurship. Direct approach is the most suitable method that is designed to produce data from informal entrepreneurship and this method has also aptitude to explore the nature of informal entrepreneurship such as in terms of income level, employment status, distribution of gender, ethnicity, or determinants of informality. Respondents are informal entrepreneurs who are working in informal entrepreneurship sector. Snowball sampling technique is a decent technique to explore the nature of informal work such as employment status, motives or reasoning to join this sphere. However, the prime source of data collection will be interview, direct observation, documents, and archival sources for this field because it allows having one-to-one contact with participants. Therefore, evaluate the thematic analysis is better fit for this field and interpretive phenomenological analysis is unsuitabl

Predictors of Non-Adherence to Breast Cancer Screening among Hospitalized Women.

OBJECTIVE:Disparities in screening mammography use persists among low income women, even those who are insured, despite the proven mortality benefit. A recent study reported that more than a third of hospitalized women were non-adherent with breast cancer screening. The current study explores prevalence of socio-demographic and clinical variables associated with non-adherence to screening mammography recommendations among hospitalized women. PATIENTS AND METHODS:A cross sectional bedside survey was conducted to collect socio-demographic and clinical comorbidity data thought to effect breast cancer screening adherence of hospitalized women aged 50-75 years. Logistic regression models were used to assess the association between these factors and non-adherence to screening mammography. RESULTS:Of 250 enrolled women, 61% were of low income, and 42% reported non-adherence to screening guidelines. After adjustment for socio-demographic and clinical predictors, three variables were found to be independently associated with non-adherence to breast cancer screening: low income (OR = 3.81, 95%CI; 1.84-7.89), current or ex-smoker (OR = 2.29, 95%CI; 1.12-4.67), and history of stroke (OR = 2.83, 95%CI; 1.21-6.60). By contrast, hospitalized women with diabetes were more likely to be compliant with breast cancer screening (OR = 2.70, 95%CI 1.35-5.34). CONCLUSION:Because hospitalization creates the scenario wherein patients are in close proximity to healthcare resources, at a time when they may be reflecting upon their health status, strategies could be employed to counsel, educate, and motivate these patients towards health maintenance. Capitalizing on this opportunity would involve offering screening during hospitalization for those who are overdue, particularly for those who are at higher risk of disease